How She Let Go
by Aius
Summary: Yang spends her time between her childhood town of Patch with Ruby and her stepmother Summer, and Vale where Taiyang lives. Blake has lived in Patch all her life, right across the street from Yang, but they never meet. A chance encounter outside an airport changes all that. Normal world college AU; Bumbleby with a hint of White Rose. Rating might change to M
1. Prologue

**A/N: Hello fellow RWBY fans :D I haven't written fanfiction in a while, so I'm gonna apologize beforehand if I'm a little bit rusty. Anyway, if you haven't seen my profile, well, I'm a film student, but yes this one is based on one of my old screenplays.**

**I thought it'd be interesting to have Yang and Blake as the main characters.**

**Hope you enjoy it. :)**

**A/N: Minor grammatical errors corrected.**

* * *

**Prologue**

"Attention passengers bound for Vale International Airport, Flight Number VA713, due to a minor technical difficulty within the aircraft, departure has been delayed. Tentative boarding time will be two hours from now, at 4:15am. We deeply apologize for this inconvenience."

With a sigh, Yang Xiao Long sat up on her seat in the mostly empty waiting area of her designated boarding gate at Patch International Airport. She stretches her arms above her head, her back making tiny popping sounds as her muscles were partially relieved of the stress caused by sitting still for too long; her long blonde mane glimmering in the low light as it cascaded down and behind her broad shoulders.

She slouched on the soft cushions of her seat, her left arm lazily draping over a large black duffel bag next to her, her right hand rubbing her eyes, if only to rouse herself from sleep. Looking up, her normally deep lavender orbs took on a more lilac tone as she stared at the rows of lights littering the ceiling.

"Fuck my life."

Across from her sat a man in his early thirties. Hei Xiong was heavily built with his big muscular arms close to ripping the sleeves of the thin fabric of his white button down shirt. On hearing the announcement, he too had sighed.

"Typical." He had said under his breath as he ran a hand through his short brunette hair, the other holding a half open book that he had been reading. Patch Airlines was quite infamous for having fifty percent of their flights delayed, after all. Setting the book on his lap, he finally looks up at his surroundings, his eyes adjusting to the light.

Everywhere he looked, people were either sleeping the extra waiting time off, or were speaking irritably into their scrolls.

It was a given fact that airports were home to a wide array of individuals. Young, old, somewhere in between. Some were ecstatic, some were nervous and most of them just wanting to get through the journey.

But for red-eye flights like the one he was currently about to take, there were only two kinds of people: The ones going back to their sanctuary and the ones running away from whatever it is that they feel they need to run away from.

It was only then that he had noticed the captivating young blonde woman sitting directly in front of him. Of course, he had noticed her as soon as he had arrived at the boarding area; she wasn't exactly difficult to see considering that she was an absolute beauty according to societal standards, but it was something else that had caught his eye.

Exhaustion.

That was the only way he could accurately describe the scene before him.

Looking at her for the umpteenth time that night, the young woman had slumped down, her arms now resting on her legs for support. From where he sat, only three feet away from her, he could see the sadness that enveloped her being, her mind was jumbled up in a tangled mess and it shone through here eyes.

A beautiful mess, if you will.

Without a second thought, he had stood up from his seat, grabbing his suitcase and his book and he sat on the seat next to her.

Yang was having one of the worst days of her young life. In fact, in the past twenty-three years of her existence, she cannot, for the love of God, remember another day when she, in her own words, felt "so fucking shitty".

Aside from her almost missing her flight, that was oh-so-conveniently delayed, because of the late night Patch traffic, she had noticed that the giant brute of man sitting in front of her had been eyeing her relentlessly over his crappy romance novel.

"Seriously," she had thought as he approached her, "who the fuck reads _Ninjas of Love_ out in the open?"

"Hello," He says with a smile. "I'm Hei. And you?"

"I know you've been staring at me all night, creep. So I'm gonna go right ahead say it: I'm not into penis." Yang says bluntly, not even sparing the man a glance.

"And I'm not all that into vag, so I think we could get along, don't you think?" Hei responds with a grin.

"Oh please." She says with distaste.

"And for the record, I already knew that you preferred the bacon over the sausage."

At this, Yang finally looks at him, her eyebrows rising in incredulity. She opens her mouth to speak, but for the first time in ever, she cannot seem to find it in herself to come up with a good retort.

"Are you playing 'sneaky straight'**(1)**? Because if you are, that has got to be the worst case of 'sneaky straight' I've ever encountered. Like. Ever."

With soft chuckle, Hei stands up and reaches for his back pocket, fishing out a weathered leather wallet. As he does so, Yang simply stares at him, only then realizing the considerable difference in their builds – and Yang was not exactly short to begin with.

Hei flips the wallet open and almost completely shoves it in Yang's face. Without flinching, Yang proceeds to look at what seems to be a photo of a pair of young girls, both of whom had long jet-black hair and seemingly unexpressive though beautiful sea foam green eyes that were hooded by identical pristinely cut bangs. It was almost impossible to tell them apart, save for the their choice of eye shadow – one being a crimson red and the other a vibrant blue.

"Milly and Mel!" Hei says pointing at the photo, "My daughters." He gives Yang another wide grin, "And that beautiful hunk of a man behind them is my husband, Oz."

Looking closely at the photo, Yang looks at the man, indeed, standing behind the twins with his arms around their shoulders. He had a solemn smile on his face; his platinum – almost white – hair gleaming under the bright sunlight of the day it was taken.

"So, I'm guessing you're into the FILFs, huh?"

Hei bursts into laughter, the other passengers turning to look at their direction as his voice booms across the room. He sits back down as he calms down.

"Well, he is the father of my kids, so I guess so."

"Well, when you put it that way."

Without even noticing it, Yang herself already had a smile on her face. She leans back on the cushions and puts her arms to rest behind her head.

"Alrighty, so if you're really gay," Yang leans back further into her seat as she looks at him, "what's up being so stalker-ish, huh?"

Hei puts a hand on his chin, gently rubbing the stubble that had started to grow on his jaw. With a soft look in his eyes, he turns back to her.

"I was just wondering what a beautiful young lady like you was doing here all alone bound for Patch."

"Wow, are you sure you play for the other team?"

"Definitely."

Her mind had strayed then - to beautiful brunette hair and amber eyes, to perfectly straight white teeth and the smell of jasmine tea.

It did not put her in a better mood.

"It's a long story." She states.

"We've got two hours," Hei says looking at his wristwatch, "What say you and I go grab a cup of coffee while we wait, huh?" With that he stands up, grabbing all of his belongings and makes his way towards the boarding area's café.

Yang watches him intently as he walks away. Slowly, she gets up herself, grabbing her duffel bag along the way and catches up with him.

"The name's Yang." She says.

"Nice to meet you, Blondie."

* * *

**A/N: Just in case:**

**(1)** "sneaky straight" – The best way I can put it: It's when a straight man/woman pretends to be gay in order to become closer to someone of the opposite sex that they're attracted to. Who's gay.


	2. Chapter One

**Chapter One**

As Yang Xiao Long stepped out into the airport's outdoor waiting area, she couldn't help but pull her beige leather jacket tighter around her body. The weather was chilly, not unusual for this time around the year in the bustling city as the dog days came to yet another end.

She made her way towards one of the gargantuan pillars holding up the building's structure and with a huff, she sets her duffel bag down at her feet while pulling her camera bag further up her shoulder before fishing out a cigarette box from inside her jeans and taking out a single stick from it.

Tentatively positioning it between her lips, she lit it with a small, rectangular metal lighter that she always kept in her front pocket and takes a long drag, letting the nicotine envelop her being and as she exhales, she couldn't help but find the smoke beautiful as it spiraled up the cold autumn air.

Silently she watched as people walked out of the numerous automatic sliding doors positioned every ten feet or so apart from each other. It always amazes her, the different types of individuals that she would see whenever she travelled.

At times she would strike up a conversation with a random stranger or two, and though these strangers – whoever they may be – may feel just a tiny bit taken aback by the sudden interaction, the blonde has a way with making them feel at ease and she always enjoyed the stories that they had to tell.

This time around though, she was perfectly content with watching the people pass by her. Letting the cigarette hang on her lips, she unzipped her bag and reached for her camera.

It was a fairly old model that she had bought when she first started at Beacon University. Though close to being outdated, it still did its job pretty well and the thought of getting an upgrade had never really crossed her mind.

If there was one thing that she loved to take photos of, it was of human emotion. And in places like airports, where people came and went, where things either began with a joyful 'hello' or ended with a heart wrenching 'goodbye', the emotion that you see – feel – is in its most passionate form.

Looking through the viewfinder, Yang started taking snapshots of everything that went about around her; a soldier holding his new-born daughter for the first time; people waiting in line at the cab service stand; a teenaged girl sharing a tearful goodbye with a boy her age.

A young woman, long brunette hair and amber eyes, button nose buried deep in a novel that she held with one hand as she walked out of one of the automatic doors. Without even noticing it, Yang had slowly dropped her hands to her sides and she stared at the young woman whose mind was completely engrossed in the words that she read.

Once again, Yang raised her camera. She continued to stare at her in awe through the it; zooming in closer she could see the details of the loose midnight blue shirt that she wore, how her finger curved delicately around her book. How her eyebrows furrowed as she read, how her eyes widened in surprise as they scanned the pages faster, how the man dressed in a crisp business suit whom Yang had failed to notice was standing beside the young woman had interrupted her internal turmoil.

She had looked up at him, said a few things inaudible to Yang given the distance between them. What she saw next made her heart skip a beat; the young lady had smiled at the man, but it wasn't the smile per se that really captured her attention, it was the cloaked sadness underneath it that had.

She could not seem to take her eyes away at the dark haired beauty standing a few feet away from her. Deciding to get it over with, she positioned her forefinger above the shutter.

And the young woman, presently the object of Yang's attention, had looked directly at her as she pressed down.

Yang tore her eyes away from the camera and quickly turned around, her face flushing a deep red at having been caught. Noticing that her cigarette had burned away, Yang dropped it on the pavement, crushed it with her boot before pulling out another stick.

Yang wasn't sure if the young woman had indeed seen her take her photo. She lit cigarette on her lips and inhaled deeply, if only to calm her nerves. It was safe to say that for the first time as an amateur photographer, Yang had felt like a complete stalker.

Risking a peek over her shoulder, Yang, though nervous, was disappointed to see that the unnamed woman had gone, as well as the man who had spoken to her. With a sigh of relief, Yang's shoulders had relaxed.

"Damn it." She said under her breath. Finally deciding to put her camera away, Yang gave the area a once-over in hopes that she may get one last glimpse of the young woman, but to no avail.

In her distraction, she had not noticed the silver car that had pulled up in front of her. The driver, Taiyang Xiao Long, who never passed up on an opportunity to mess with his daughters banged his fist on the car's horn, causing not only Yang, but also everyone else in a five-mile radius to jump in surprise.

"Holy-!" Yang exclaimed with one hand on her chest.

"There's my girl!" Taiyang had popped his head out from the passenger seat window, "And I see you still smoke like there's no tomorrow." His head had disappeared then, only to resurface a moment later as he stepped out of the car and in a few strides he had Yang in a bone-crushing hug.

"Oh, I missed you."

Taiyang Xiao Long was an attractive man. Standing at six feet tall, Yang had inherited his golden blond hair, his straight nose, lope-sided smile and his exuberant personality and even at age forty-three, he could still be mistaken for the younger blonde's older brother. He and Yang looked alike in every way, except for the color of their eyes; his being silver gray.

"Ummph- Pop," Yang uttered in between breaths, "I can't. Breathe."

"Ha! That's the point!" Finally releasing his daughter from the vice-like grip of his arms, Taiyang ruffled her hair. "Now, get your shit, get your ass in the car. Come on, vamoose!" And with that Taiyang had jogged back to driver's seat. "And no smoking in the car!"

Yang chuckled as she tried to fix the mess that her father had made of her hair. With one last puff, she threw the cigarette away, leaned down to get her duffel bag and as she stood back up, her body had crashed with another, throwing both their bodies down on the pavement.

"Crap, sorry," Yang had started to say as she looked up to see the person she had bumped into, "I didn't see-"

Lavender was met by amber.

It was as if time had stopped. For a moment, it seemed as if everything – the people, the cars, even the sounds – had slowed down into an indistinct blur. Captivating amber eyes bore into her lavender ones, as if staring right into her soul.

"Blake!" Someone had called. Yang didn't realize it was addressed to the woman in front of her until she had stood up.

"It's fine." She says as she dusted herself off, hastily walking away. Yang finally stood up only to see her enter a black limousine parked in front of Taiyang's car. As it began to drive away, something on the ground caught her eye. The young woman, Blake, had dropped her book.

"Hey, wait!" She says picking up the forgotten novel, taking a few steps forward and waving it in the air, but by then the limousine had already driven away. "Ah, damn."

Turning back, Yang threw the passenger door open, tossed her bags in the backseat and sat down with a huff. Taiyang glanced at her, a mischievous gleam in his eyes.

"Real smooth, Casanova."

"Shut up." Taiyang chuckles and starts to drive. Yang glanced down at the book on her lap; _Ninjas of Love_, the cover read.

* * *

The City of Vale was almost exactly the same as she had left it a few months prior to spend the summer holidays in Patch. It was hectic still, with the cacophony of people going about their busy daily lives and of the cars speeding by in every street.

She loved the city with all her heart, as much as she loved the calm and quiet that she could ever only find in Patch. But for some reason unknown, something that she did not understand herself, she found out, after having grown up living for months at a time in both places, that she felt most at peace when surrounded by what can only be described as chaotic; complete and utter pandemonium.

Yang had never felt more at home.

The drive to their apartment normally didn't take a very long time. But due to rush hour traffic, father and daughter had found themselves singing along to every dreadful pop tune on the radio to pass the time and it wasn't until the sun had set did they walk into their home a little bit later than when they had expected. By then, both were too tired to even complain.

Yang had made a beeline for her room, tossing the duffel bag on her bed. She smiled to herself as she walked towards her table, slinging the camera bag's strap over her head as she heard her father's soft footsteps come closer to where she is.

Taiyang leant on the doorframe behind her.

Yang knew what was coming.

"So," She let out a frustrated sigh before placing the bag on the table and turning to face her father, "How's Summer?"

"Is that really the first thing that you're gonna ask me every time I come home?" With nothing to say, Taiyang had bowed his head, and had unconsciously started rubbing the back of his neck.

"Mom's fine." was Yang's curt reply. "She's the same as always. Running the bakery five days a week, putting up with Ruby's antics and mine. The usual things that supermoms do."

"That's good to know."

Of course, Yang knew that that wasn't what her father had actually wanted to ask. She knew that what he wanted – needed, for some obscure reason – to know was that if her stepmother, dark hair, petite stature, warm smiles, the smell of cookies and all, had started seeing another man.

"I really fucked up with her, you know?" Taiyang says giving her a sheepish smile as he looked back up to meet her eyes, finally breaking the awkward silence that was uncommon between him and his eldest daughter.

"That, you did." She deadpans.

"Hey!" He put his hands over his chest in feigned hurt, "You don't have to be so mean about it!" Unable to keep the smile off his face, Taiyang breaks into laughter, Yang shakes her head and smiles, going over to her father for a hug.

"Pop?"

"Hmm?"

"I love you, ok?"

"I love you too, kiddo." He says, ruffling her hair. "Anyway, I gotta go lock the café up for the night. Ren called in sick today, so I had to leave Jaune in charge." Taiyang pulls away and walks out of her room.

"Wait," Yang calls after him, as the realization hit her. Blond and blue-eyed Jaune Arc was by far one of her father's less competent employees, and the thought of him managing his father's café, even for a few hours, was something that worried her. "You sure that was a good idea?"

"Nope!" He yells back from the living room, "But, better Jaune than Nora!"

* * *

As soon Taiyang had left, Yang had changed into a hoodie and boy-shorts. She had stood right smack in the middle of her room, taking everything in - the photos that she had stuck on the wall right above her desk, the boxing gloves that she had hung on a coat rack at the far end of the room beside her closet, the door that led to the balcony – everything was as she left it.

Moving towards the table, she grabbed her camera and her pack of cigarettes and walked out into the balcony. Vale's skyline was captivating, as always. From how high up she was, the numerous lights flickering from buildings and skyscrapers that can she can barely make out in the dark resembled stars and it was a view that she will never grow tired off.

She sat down with her back to the balcony's railing and lit a cigarette before she looked through the photos she took earlier in the day. And as she scrolled on, she stopped to stare at one particular photo; one of a beautiful, dark haired girl and captivating amber eyes staring at her.

Yang didn't realize it then as she sat alone high above the city smoking the night away, but in the midst of all the chaos – the hustle and bustle of life and the noise of people – she had captured, in that perfect moment, human emotion in its most passionate form.

She had captured the very moment she had fallen in love.


	3. Chapter Two

**A/N: Hello! First off, I'd like to apologize for the six-month delay. Things have been pretty hectic with my thesis and well, graduation (READ: I'm finally funemployed! *****sob*)**

**Anyway, here is Chapter 2. Kind of one of those intro types, but yes. Read away. **

**Spoiler: Next chapter will feature Blake. And Weiss.**

**Enjoy. :)**

Chapter Two

"Yeah Ma, the trip was fine." Yang spoke into her scroll as she walked through the cobbled streets of Downtown Vale, pausing every now and then to chuckle at the chalkboards that most of the area's restaurants tended to station outside their establishment. She found some of them quite amusing, the latest she had seen being one from the local cat café – "Thank God, it's CAT-urday!" it read, and the staff had a doodled what seemed to be an orange tabby on top of the "CAT".

"Me and Pop got back home pretty late the other night, and honestly, I'm still a little swamped."

"Really, now?" Said Summer from over the line, "Makes me wonder how you're up before noon." Yang could imagine her stepmother's smile through her teasing tone, warm and sunny still, though a tad bit playful.

"Yeah… I promised Pop I'd help out in the café today. Not exactly one of my best ideas." She said with a yawn, stopping behind of a group of people waiting to cross the street.

"I find it strange that you're walking to the place though," Summer continued, the displeasure apparent in her voice just as the crowd in front of Yang had started moving. "Knowing you, you're usually wreaking havoc on your motorcycle."

"And you know me so well, mother unit. Sadly – " Yang had just set a foot off the curb when a car had speeded past her, missing her by an inch, "Hey, watch where you're going asshole!" she had shouted at car, the hand not holding her scroll balled up into a fist and waving it angrily in the air. The said car had come to a complete brake a few feet away from her, the driver popping his head out the window.

"You watch it! I'm driving here!"

"It's a red light, asshole!" Yang watched as the reckless driver drove off. Not seeing a single cop in sight, Yang silently fumed as she continued on her way to the other side of the street, "People around here are such dumbfucks, I swear."

"Yang, watch your language." Summer sternly chastised. She had leaned her ear away from her scroll at Yang's outburst, nearly falling off the stool she was sitting on beside the kitchen counter and assuming that the coast was clear she had decided to resume her motherly duties; she had raised the fiery blonde for most of her life, after all. "Three days there and you're already starting to talk like your father."

"Ah well, ya married the guy," With her initial anger dissolving, Yang stopped outside a huge a glass window, looking up at the sign branded onto it. She could smell the distinct aroma of meticulously brewed coffee even from outside and it put a smile on her face. "So, that can't really be a bad thing, right?"

"Correction. I _was_ married to him." It was true; Summer and Taiyang had been divorced four years by then. The news of their then-tentative separation had caused Yang and her younger sister Ruby a lot of anguish, and it was a type of pain that both girls will probably never recover from, or at least not for a little while longer.

"Yeah, yeah. I know," Yang had replied with a feigned nonchalance, "As I was saying, Pop took Bumblebee to Tukson's for her monthly maintenance. I won't get to see my baby until Monday night."

"I still haven't forgiven him for giving you that metal death trap." Yang had chuckled at her stepmother's unending anxiousness over the machine that Taiyang had given her as a "gift" for "finishing high school and not running away to join a gang and ending up dead. Or a hobo."

"Yeah well, can't do anything about that now, can we Ma?" Summer had merely given her an exasperated sigh. "Anyway, I gotta go. Tell Rubes I'll call her tonight alright?" Yang had whispered a quick "Love ya!" before hanging up and finally pushing herself through the glass doors of the café.

As compared to Midtown, which was mostly a residential area and Uptown, being the city's financial district where fine dining was the norm, Downtown was known for having the best, fairly affordable establishments that most frequented. Though less vibrant during the day, the area simply came to life at night when an abundance of neon lights would light up every nook and cranny, and when every individual looking for a good time came around.

Right smack in the middle of it all, with the bars and honky-tonks currently closed and specialty restaurants serving up the first wave of the lunch crowd, was the Turquoise Beanery.

Having been open for about seven years – well, seven years the last time the young blonde had counted – what used to be considered a "hole-in-the-wall" café by most, had gained a considerable amount of popularity amongst the younger crowd in Vale, especially with it being a few minutes walk away from the city's most prominent universities.

Inside, the walls were painted a slightly softer shade of its namesake and they were adorned with photographs; paintings and various installations by the local art students served as chandeliers – the most prominent one being a slightly crooked, mustard yellow one-table set-up nailed upside-down to the ceiling.

Having stepped inside, Yang was met by a sense of nostalgia.

There she stood, not another step forward nor another step back, taking everything in: the combination of sweet tea and earthy coffee creating a tantalizing fragrance in the air, the soft chitter-chatter of the noontime crowd, the way the hardwood tables felt under her touch – all of it sent Yang reeling back to years of autumn memories, hours and minutes and seconds spent in the familiarity of her surroundings.

"Yang!" Before the young blonde could even look towards the source of the high-pitched, ecstatic voice that had called out her name, she found her entire midsection wrapped in long, thin arms.

"Boss said you'd be coming in today," Nora Valkyrie, standing a mere five feet (and one inch, so she liked to remind everyone who cared to listen) was surprisingly strong, and Yang, gasping for air, had only a thicket of red hair to see above the bone-crushing side embrace. The ginger looked up at her, not letting go, her baby blues gleaming with pure happiness at seeing her old friend, "And here you are now!"

"Now Nora," said a calm male voice beside them, "you should probably give the poor girl some space. Wouldn't want her dying of asphyxiation now, do we?"

"Right!" Nora, finally resting her hands on the taller girl's shoulders had turned her head to beam at the young man.

He, Lie Ren, a handsome young man around Yang's age, had his straight jet-black hair tied up in a neat bun, his bangs feathered over piercing magenta eyes that mimicked the solemn smile on his lips as he approached the pair.

"It's great to have you back, Yang." He said, gently patting the blonde.

"And it's great to be back." Yang replied with a grin. "Where's Pop?" She asked as her eyes scanned the room, looking for a hint of blond amongst huddled groups, her eyes finally resting at the counter where a young man manned the cashier.

Blond? Yes. Her father? No.

This was Jaune Arc, tall and lanky with a mess of dirty blonde hair flopping across his forehead. He seemed to be having a hard time operating the cash register, his eyes squinting as if it would make the machine work any better. Yang suppressed a chuckle, looking at him fondly from afar.

"Ah, Boss says he's gonna be out for the rest of the day. Left you in charge."

"He what now?" Her head quickly turned back to face Ren, her eyebrows rising in annoyance. _Typical. _She thought to herself. It wasn't unusual for her father to take the rest of the working day off, whether or not Yang was in town.

"Yep. Come now, Nora, let's get back to work." Ren said, prying Nora away from Yang.

Yang stood as if rooted to the spot, and watched as they walked back to the counter; Ren pausing every now and then to make sure the customers were satisfied, Nora giving warm smiles and Jaune, pushing random buttons on the cash register, causing it to shoot open, notes and coins flying all around him and the customer he was currently serving.

Slowly, Yang too had a smile playing across her lips, finally walking up to the counter while tying an apron around her waist and saving Jaune from any more embarrassment from the gorgeous red head standing in front of him.

_It's great to be back._


End file.
